


Make Her Better

by Becca_vs_world



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, game of thrones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Sickness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 08:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7500720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Becca_vs_world/pseuds/Becca_vs_world
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya is stuck with the flu. Gendry nurses her back to health, all while trying to battle his feelings for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make Her Better

Arya’s coughing was so loud that she didn’t even hear Gendry come into her apartment using the key she gave him for emergencies. She laid in her queen sized bed, hacking up half a lung, when Gendry came in, his hair messy from the wind outside and he set down three grocery bags down at the foot of her bed.  
“What are you doing here?” Arya sniffles miserably.  
“Sansa sent me. She said you wouldn’t let her or Jon take care of you, so here I am.” He speaks, his deep voice shaking her core, although that might just be the cough that erupts from her mouth as he speaks.  
Gendry was her best friend, at times her therapist, and at this moment, her caretaker. They had met through Jon, his roommate, who was also her sister Sansa’s boyfriend.  
“I’m fine by myself. I just need to sleep it off.” She grumbles and Gendry rolls his eyes at the stubborn woman.  
“How are you gonna sleep it off if you can’t even fall asleep?” Gendry questions and Arya gives him a glare, only to be cut off by another round of coughing. “I brought soup—I know it’s your favorite so don’t even try to say it’s not—and I also brought my extensive movie collection, candy, tea, and medicine.” He lists and Arya tries to hide herself in her large covers.  
“Thank you. Now please leave.” Arya croaks, her throat scratchy.  
“No. I’ve been given explicit orders from your sister. I’m not leaving until I nurse you back to your prime health.” Gendry tells her sternly and Arya groans.  
“So you’re not even here of your own accord? You’re just here because Sansa made you?” She cries and Gendry shakes his head.  
“If you’re gonna keep being such an ungrateful ass about it then maybe I’ll just take these bags and lock you in your own disgusting germs, how about that?” Gendry fires back and Arya huffs, silencing herself due to her pride. “Fine. I’ll just make this delicious soup, put in a fantastic movie, eat some candy, and drink peach tea—I know it’s your favorite—all by myself.” He sighs dramatically before picking up the bags and leaving.  
Gendry begins heating up the canned soup while Arya coughed in her room. As he said he would, Gendry put his favorite of the movies he brought along into the DVD player before settling down with his bowl of hot soup, Twizzlers, and peach tea.  
It’s not even through the first scene when the coughing grows louder. Gendry hears the door to Arya’s bedroom squeak open and her almost silent footsteps approach him.  
“Is there any soup left?” Arya asks so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her.  
Gendry hands his bowl over to her and pats the spot next to him, to which Arya obediently sits down. She stares at him as he stands up and mumbles.  
“You didn’t have to give me your bowl.” She mutters and Gendry rolls his eyes.  
“You’re the sick one, not me.” He replies and she sighs before digging into the warm dish.  
Gendry grabs a can of Lysol from one of the grocery bags and heads towards Arya’s room, only to be stopped by the sick Stark.  
“What are you doing?” She snaps, hoping to sound threatening, but her sniffles and sore throat cause a smile to rise on Gendry’s face.  
“I'm going to take a shot at disinfecting your room. It smells like death and probably isn’t helping you get better.” He explains and he earns another glare. “Just stay here while I change your sheets and all that shit, okay?” He groans before disappearing into her room.  
Arya finishes her soup and eats a few cough drops and sips on her tea as the movie progresses. About halfway through, Gendry comes back from her room, a bead of sweat on his forehead.  
“Why is it so hard to put on a fitted sheet?” He breathes heavily, causing Arya to laugh loudly, bringing on another coughing fit. “Come on, go take a shower. It’ll make you feel better.” Gendry orders her and she huffs.  
“You sound exactly like Sansa.” Arya pouts, even though she stands up to do what he said.  
“Funny how people care about you can have things in common.” He snorts and his words jolt Arya, but she brushes it off as the cold medicine kicking in.  
“I'll be out soon.” Arya tells her caretaker and he nods.  
“Don’t turn the fan on and close the door, you want the bathroom to steam up.” Gendry calls after her and he hears her groan something along the lines of okay mom!  
While she’s in the shower, Gendry cleans the living room and sprays the shit out of it with the Lysol. He doesn’t want to get sick, as Sansa warned him, but spending time with Arya was worth it.  
Truth be told, Sansa didn’t tell him to go take care of her sister. She had simply mentioned that Arya was ill and Gendry immediately brought all the essentials for her to get well. He doesn’t even think that Sansa even knows he’s here. Arya was his best friend, but he knew that he felt for her more than that.  
Finishing up the movie and desperately trying to get the fact that Arya was naked only a couple dozen feet away from him out of his mind, Gendry ate a bowl of soup himself, and waiting patiently for her to return, smelling like her hair and body wash instead of sweat and germs.  
Eventually, he heard the door open and a much softer cough came from Arya as she walked into her room. He tried not to watch her as she quickly crossed the hallway to her bedroom, but he still caught a glimpse of her body covered by only a towel.  
Trying to get his heart rate down, he thought of everything he could that wasn’t Arya. Suddenly though, Gendry heard her voice call for him, and like a dream, he raced to her room.  
“Yeah?” He questions before seeing her nude save for some athletic shorts covering her bottom.  
“Can you put lotion on my back? I can’t reach.” Arya asks casually as Gendry can’t even get a reply to come out of his mouth.  
“Yeah.” He brings himself to repeat as he takes the lotion bottle from her and squeezes some into his hands, rubbing them together to warm it up before lathering it onto her soft, pale skin.  
His hands roam over shoulders, down her arms, down to the small of her back and in between her shoulder blades, massaging the cocoa butter scented moisturizer into her skin. Arya let out quiet sounds of pleasure due to his hands, and Gendry finished quickly so to avoid doing something he shouldn’t.  
“There you go.” He quips before trying to rush out of the room casually, which of course doesn’t fool Arya.  
She decides to get dressed and dry her hair before going back out into the living room to find Gendry sitting there, staring at his hands. Arya wonders if he took any drugs before he came here, and if he’s just having a really weird trip. She sits down next to him, her mouth in the junction of her arm to cough and she spreads her legs over Gendry.  
“I shaved. Feel.” She smiles giddily.  
Arya waves her smooth legs in his face and she swears she sees him flush. Maybe he did do drugs. Gendry does as she says, and grazes his hands over her calf, one brushing up to her thigh to feel her soft skin, indulging himself. Arya feels tingles shooting up her legs, goosebumps appearing in the skin that he’s already passed over with his calloused fingertips. She quickly pulls her legs away as she coughs, covering her entire face so not to let him see her blush.  
Gendry moves to the grocery bag for a cough drop, only to see that Arya has already devoured the entire bag. He looks at her with a concerned expression before standing up and grabbing his wallet and keys. Arya looks up and with red eyes she stops him.  
“Where are you going?” She demands and Gendry points to the empty cough drop package.  
“I thought I bought enough, I’m going to get more. Lots more.” He explains before sliding his jacket over his broad, muscular shoulders and walking out her apartment door.  
Now the only sound is her own heavy breathing and the menu screen of the movie still playing on her television set. Arya looks at her phone and sees a missed call from her sister, so she decides now would be the best time to call her back. She clicks on Sansa’s contact and holds her phone to her ear, waiting for the line to pick up. When she does, Sansa is breathing heavily and sounds annoyed.  
“What Arya?” She huffs out in an irate tone.  
“Well jeez, and here I thought you were actually worried about me.” She scoffs, bringing on another coughing fit. She hears another voice telling Sansa to just call back later.  
“I—I am worried Arya. Yo—you said you didn’t need anything.” Sansa replies breathlessly.  
“What are you doing?” Arya asks knowingly.  
“I’m, uh, I’m hanging out with Jon.” She replies, an almost inaudible moan escaping from the other side of the phone.  
“Just hanging out?” Arya chuckles, thriving in teasing her sister. Away from the phone, she hears Jon groan and then Sansa is clearer as she speaks.  
“What did you want Arya? I’m trying to be a sexually active adult for god’s sake.” Sansa groans and Arya grins at her victory.  
“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?” She quips one more time.  
“I’m hanging up now.” Sansa replies in a flat tone and Arya protests.  
“No! Don’t. I’m done, I’m done.” She states and Sansa sighs.  
“Okay, what then?” Sansa questions and Arya looks down at her feet.  
“I just… I wanted to thank you for sending Gendry. He’s actually helping me. I feel a lot better.” Arya thanks her sister and there’s a silence from her end. “Sansa?”  
“What do you mean thank you for sending Gendry? I didn’t tell him anything except that you were sick. He kind of just left after I said it. I didn’t think much of it because Jon was,” Her sister begins to explain, and Arya is shocked, but not too shocked to stop her sister form explaining the things her boyfriend was doing to her.  
“I get it. Thanks Sansa. Talk to you tomorrow. Tell Jon I said hi.” She chuckles and she can practically see Sansa rolling her eyes.  
“I will. Love you.” She sends off.  
“Love you.” Arya repeats before hanging up the phone and immediately shoving her face in her hands.  
Why would Gendry lie? Why would he say that Sansa sent him when she didn’t? Did he think that the information was an invitation to help her, or did he do it because he wanted to? Arya knows he’ll be back any moment, as she only lives a block away from a drugstore and she’s sure that’s where Gendry went to get the cough drops.  
Arya stands up just as her door swings open and Gendry slides into her apartment again. His skin is flushed from the cool fall weather and his piercing blue eyes make her heart jump into her sore throat. Gendry walks over to her with a big re-sealable package of cough drops, opens it, and hands her one.  
“Are you feeling better?” He asks her, and she’s still in her thinking daze, so her brain doesn’t send a message to her mouth to reply. “Arya?” Gendry questions, waving his hand in front of her face, but Arya is focused on the swirl of his eyes as his face contorts in concern. “Arya, are you alright?” He takes a step closer to her, grabbing her face by her cheeks and forcing her to look at him, drawing her out of her stupor.  
“Why did you lie?” She asks him and he’s taken back by her vague question.  
“What? What did I lie about?” His eyebrows furrow in confusion.  
“Why did you lie about Sansa sending you to take care of me? She didn’t.” Arya states and this time she knows she sees Gendry’s already pink cheeks redden.  
“I, I just wanted to uh, I just wanted to make sure you were gonna be okay because Jon wasn’t going to let Sansa leave the apartment anytime soon, and I didn’t want to be there to hear it.” Gendry quickly tells his crush, but he can tell she’s not buying the whole thing.  
“Gendry, can I try something?” Arya wonders after a few moments of silence. Warily, he steps away from her.  
“Are you gonna kick my ass or something?” He squints at her and she coughs.  
“We’ll,” She coughs some more. “see.” She finishes and he sighs.  
“Okay, what then?” Gendry groans and she smiles.  
“I need you to close your eyes.” She orders and he scoffs.  
“So you can dump something on me? No.” He replies and Arya pouts dramatically.  
“Isn’t the nurse supposed to do everything in their power to make their patient comfortable?” Arya whines and Gendry rolls his eyes.  
“Who said I was your nurse?” He scoffs.  
“You did. When you… came here to… take care of me.” She coughs in between words and he sighs.  
“Fine. Fine.” He bites, closing his eyes.  
“I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to try something.” Arya states in a hushed voice, her tone an emotion he couldn’t place without seeing her expression, but before he can think any different, he feels a pair of lips on his own, and his eyes shoot open to see Arya kissing him.  
Arya is kissing him. Arya is kissing him. Arya is kissing him. Arya is kissing him.  
She pulls away quickly, her eyes glazed over, but he’s not sure if that’s from their hasty kiss or her sickness. As if she realizes it too, she gasps, covering her mouth.  
“I’m sick! Shit! I’m so sorry! I forgot? How the fuck did I forget I was sick?” She cries, and Gendry pulls her back in, planting his lips back where they were a few moments ago, and her lips slowly melt into his own.  
It goes no deeper than just their lips, but it feels more intimate than anything he’s ever thought about doing with Arya. His best friend, his roommate’s girlfriend’s sister, his confidant, his Arya. And now they were kissing. Slowly, they pull away from one another at the same time, and Gendry is sure that he looks just as dazed as she does.  
“You shouldn’t have done that. Now you’ll get sick too.” She chuckles sardonically and Gendry smiles.  
“I don’t care. It was worth it.” He replies and Arya tries to hide her own wide grin.  
The next day, Gendry and Arya lay together in her bed, both coughing hard and using up so many tissues it looked like they were in a winter storm. They were almost out of cough drops, they were out of soup, and peach tea.  
“Do you regret it now? You look like shit.” Arya smiles and Gendry shakes his head.  
“No. I don’t regret it at all.”


End file.
